A private healthcare firm, which recently took over the contract to run health services on the edge of Bristol, asked staff not to report their safety concerns to the health watchdog.

Registered managers in health and social care have a legal obligation to report issues to the Care Quality Commission if they feel their service is unsafe.

But Virgin Care, which took on care services in Bath and North East Somerset earlier this yea,r asked its managers to ‘hold off’ from contacting the CQC as they struggled with IT issues affecting community health and social care services.

Virgin Care recently took on the running of community care in the area to the south and east of Bristol, including in Keynsham, Saltford and Whitchurch.

But in the first three months in charge of community care, patients had appointments cancelled, letters and reports were not sent out, and nurses had problems updating patient records.

Virgin Care said it had "shared comprehensive details with the CQC and they have not raised any concerns".

The private company said it had IT issues under control in its first report to the council in July.

But two weeks earlier, a senior manager had emailed service managers asking them to help “manage the situation” by not reporting their concerns to the CQC.

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“I am calling our local Compliance/Relationship Manager from CQC and will be updating her on our current situation and where we’re at with resolving it,” Ms Thallon continued in her email sent July 5.

“We will ask for her advice about the need to submit the formal notification and will act accordingly – we will do that as an organisation rather than from separate services as many of the issues are affecting colleagues across a number of services so we would be duplicating it if we send them in separately.

“In the meantime if you are approached by anyone with a view to contacting the CQC directly please can you advise them of the actions we are taking as this may provide some reassurance for them.”

Instead of reassurance, however, the email filled some managers with horror.

The meeting of Bath and North East Somerset's Clinical Commissioning Group which decided to award the community care contract to Virgin Care

One staff member said there was widespread distrust about what Virgin Care would tell the CQC based on their experience with the private company since it took over in April.

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“They’re wearing people out to the extent that they’re not reporting their concerns any more because they don’t get a response,” the employee said.

“At the same time we’re having to provide a service. It’s exhausting and demoralising.”

The staff member said some community health and social care services in B&NES were still dogged by IT issues.

Virgin Care claimed it had largely resolved all of its IT issues and it was “business as usual” on July 19 when it presented its 100 Day Report to the council’s Health and Wellbeing Select Committee.

“I can assure you it’s not business as usual,” said the staff member, who used to do the same job as an employee of Sirona.

“Service users aren’t suffering but that’s only because of the professionals working within the organisation.

“That’s the really frustrating bit.

“The people at the front line are doing a good job, not Virgin.”

The Bath Chronicle sent eight questions to Virgin Care, addressing its handling of CQC notifications, its report to the CQC, and what IT issues its services in B&NES are still experiencing.

In answer to all eight questions, it sent the following statement: “As was widely reported earlier in the year, there was no interruption to services for patients and, as soon as issues arose, we quickly implemented contingency plans which ensured services continued to operate safely.

“Colleagues were supported to deliver care while our local and senior teams met regularly to monitor progress and brief our commissioners and the CQC on the issues and what was being done to resolve them; we have shared comprehensive details with the CQC and they have not raised any concerns.”

Virgin took over community health and social care services in B&NES after it won a £700 million contract from Bath and North East Somerset Council and the B&NES Clinical Commissioning Group.

The seven-year contract is thought to be the financially-largest deal the company has ever won from a single authority.

It also marks the first time a council’s core adult social work services is delivered by a for-profit private firm.

Bath and North East Somerset Council and B&NES Clinical Commissioning Group issued a joint statement following the revelations, and said it believed staff 'should be able' to raise concerns with the CQC.

"B&NES Council and B&NES CCG closely monitor the delivery of health and social care services provided by Virgin Care as part of the contract," the statement said.

"This is the case for all our providers.

"Both organisations believe that staff and the public should be able to raise any concerns they have with the appropriate authorities such as the CQC in the interests of ensuring that the well-being of service users is the top priority.

"In July, we published a report that evaluated activity over the first 100 days of Virgin Care services.

"While there have been recognised challenges, the key objectives were met and services were handed over effectively from Sirona to Virgin Care.

"Both the council and the CCG would take immediate action if it was felt there was a need to do so," the statement added.